1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a suture instrument used to be inserted into a body cavity. To be more specific, the present invention relates to a suture instrument used to suture a hole etc. formed on a hollow organ, e.g., a stomach or a digestive organ by using a suture thread having anchors attached to the ends thereof.
2. Background Art
A conventionally known suture instrument uses a suture thread having anchors attached to the two ends thereof for the purpose of suturing a hole or a laceration formed on a hollow organ such as a stomach or a digestive organ (for example, see WO2007-37326). A suture instrument of this type sutures an organ by locking a tissue around the hole within or in the exterior of the tissue with anchors attached to the two ends of the suture thread, constricting the suture thread, and attracting the tissue having the anchors locked thereto.
In order to conduct a reliable suturing of tissues by using the suture instrument disclosed in WO2007-37326, the anchors loaded in the distal end of the suture instrument must be discharged from the distal end one after another reliably into opposed tissues with respect to the hole, and the tissues must be locked by the anchors. For this reason, an annular groove is formed on the surface of each anchor of the suture instrument disclosed by WO2007-37326 to engage with a projection provided on the inner surface of the needle disposed on the distal end of the suture instrument. In this configuration, a user can feel and acknowledge the discharge of the anchor based on the disengagement of the projection from the groove.